"Researcher Seeks Farming

Question

Solutions"
by Isabella Isaacs-Thomas
To feed the world and then some, farms and pastures take up a lot of space - 40 percent of all land globally is used for agriculture - and inevitably take a significant toll on the environment.
Agricultural practices generated 10 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in 2019. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus -standard soil nutrients found in manure or chemical fertilizers - can leak from croplands into nearby waterways and eat up the oxygen in aquatic ecosystems, sometimes killing the creatures that call them home, and even making humans sick.
Meanwhile, as the costs of fertilizer, equipment and land itself rise, "farmers have to farm more and more acres" to make ends meet, said landscape ecologist Lisa Schulte Moore. As it becomes increasingly difficult for farm operations to be profitable enough to sustain people's livelihoods, there are fewer and fewer active farms, according to the USDA's Census of Agriculture, conducted every five years.
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Use the passage to answer the question.
Based on the structure of this passage, which would most likely follow this section of text?
(1 point)
a solution to the problem of world hunger
a comparison between conventional and organic farming techniques
a solution to the problem of unsustainable agricultural practices
O a comparison between aquatic and soil-based ecosystems

Answer 1

Based on the structure of the passage, the most likely continuation would be:

a solution to the problem of unsustainable agricultural practices.

This choice aligns with the concerns raised in the passage regarding the environmental impact of agricultural practices, the rising costs faced by farmers, and the need for sustainable solutions.